h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I can only speak of the late 50s, as I wasn't born earlier.

During this time my mother never worked and most women stayed at home. She started to learn shorthand typing towards the end of the 50s, much to my dad's displeasure. He didn't want a working wife, although he was glad of the money later and when they retired, her pension was greater than his.

It was a time of petticoats and dirndl skirts. Boys generally wore short trousers. We all had handkerchiefs as tissues weren't common (or available).

There were several cinemas in the town where I grew up and we went fairly regularly. As time went by, some of the cinemas closed. Some became bingo halls, which we kids thought was a big waste. When our local Palais dance hall closed (there used to be dancing at weekends) and became a bingo hall too, the kids organised a 'Ban Bingo' march through our town. I carried a homemade placard. I've forgotten how many other children marched that day. It acually made a difference as the Palais was reopened for the children on Saturday afternoons.

Children were much more respectful of adults and my parents used to say 'Children should be seen and not heard'. Also language was much more restrained. I can remember much later seeing the 'F' word in print for the first time, and how shocking that was; young children use it these days.

Work was much more plentiful and in general, school leavers didn't have any difficulty finding a job.

There wasn't much in the way of pop music and any there was had to be listened on from pirate radio stations, Radio Luxembourg and Radio Caroline, for instance. Reception was awful, and it was a struggle to hear what was being played over the interference.

My parents used to take us to the seaside for the day every weekend on their motorbike and sidecar. We often went to Blackpool, or Morecambe, or to Downham Village, or the Lake District. Petrol was cheap and there was personal service.

We didn't have a television as my parents thought it was bad for our education. One friend had a TV with a magnifying glass in front of it, and I used to watch Bonanza and the like from time to time. On Sundays, I visited my grandparents, who did have a TV and watched Bing Crosby films (my favourite), or George Formby (my brother's favourite). My granddad liked the wrestling. I used to hide behind the sofa when the cowboys and indian films were playing.

Our local co-op had personal service from behind a counter (it went self-service laster) and the shopkeeper cut and shaped the butter using two wooden paddles. We had a Dividend number (divvy) and had to quote it with every purchase. This gave a rebate on purchases.

Milk was delivered on a horse and cart. Our milkman lived a couple of streets away, but I don't think I ever knew where the horse was kept.

The rag and bone man visited frequently and would encourage children to ask parents for things by giving balloons.

We were allowed to play out with no worries about either traffic or strangers, as long as we came back in time for meals. Friends used to call and ask mum if I was allowed to play out. We ranged far and wide, climbed trees, across pipes, went to the swing park, made dens and put on shows for our parents. I feel quite sorry for today's children who don't have nearly the freedom we did.

Shops had trays of sweets, many of which were four for a(n old) penny. There were still farthings, threepenny pieces and sixpences - and half crowns, ten shilling notes and pound notes. Chips cost 6d a portion (slighly older people can remember it being 3d) and we used to have them 'open' so that we could eat them while walking. Bread cost 5p a loaf. White bread was treated as a wonderful treat and had the consistency of cotton wool, contrasting with the much heavier consistency of brown wholemeal bread, which had been the norm.

Hmm, I can see I'm doing what you asked us to avoid. Still, as I've started ...

Sex - was not taught in schools and my mum wasn't confident enough to speak to us children about it. Sex outside marriage was definitely taboo and unmarried mothers were ostracised. Their children were called bastards and likewised made to feel shame about it.

Radio (again) - we listened with mother every day.

Libraries - I visited every week, taking home four books, which were always read before being returned. As money was scarce, it was a wonderful resource.

Mothers were given free orange juice for young children and at school, children were given 1/3 of a pint of milk a day in small bottles. Milk used to freeze in winter and push the bottle top up. In summer, milk was often drunk warm and was occasionally 'off'.

At school, we had integral desks with seats, sometimes singly, sometimes in twos. They had ink wells and we used dip in pens, when we progressed from pencils. We started of using slates and counted with shells. We had 'Time and Tune' on the radio and I learned loads of folk songs, like 'Blow the wind southerly' by Kathleen Ferrier. We also did country dancing, eg Cumberland Square Eights (my favourite) and had story time every Friday morning. Our teacher used to read 'Famous Five', 'Secret Seven' and 'The (subject) of Adventure' books, which I thoroughly enjoyed. She always stopped too soon. Children these days have far shorter attention spans.

Children's comics included things like the 'Eagle', Dandy and Beano, although we started off with the more cosy 'Sunny Stories', which as their name suggests were mostly sweetness and light, with characters like 'Lambkin and Bobtail'. Boys comics were full of stories about fighting the Germans. Girls (like Bunty) were all about schoolgirl adventures, although the schools were not like the ones we actually went to and they were mostly about boarding schools. There was quite a lot of 'jolly hockey stick' stuff.

Looking back it seems like a golden age, But I suppose it always does.
There was a small railway station near our house and there were electric lamp standards over the platforms and the (wooden) bridge. It used to be rumoured that in the olden days, before the war, these lamp standards contained bulbs which were actually lit. Just like the empty light sockets that we used to see in shop windows. This seemed fairly unbelievable similar to the red cast-iron chocolate vending machines on the platform with the slots (blocked) which proclaimed that if you inserted a penny you would get a bar of Fry's chocolate.
Our radio worked on an accumulator, a lead-acid battery similar to one in a car today. We had to take it back every week or so the the local ironmonger shop to have it recharged. These batteries were very heavy. Despite grisly tales about wee boys who had tripped and spilled the acid on themselves with dire results, we always managed, no health and safety bs then.
Much that we take for granted today was missing, but much that is hard to get today was commonplace. Our greengrocer (and this was in a city) sold veggies and fruit grown on local farms, complete with a coating of local earth. Fishmongers sold fish that had been hauled from the firth the previous night and sold on the pierhead that morning. Good butchers had interests in their own farms or herds and displayed the carcasses which they had butchered dripping blood onto the sawdust floor of the shop.
In the tram cars, which were always open front and back so you could jump on and off at your own risk to life or limb, there were little boxes where you could deposit 'uncollected fares' and they were regularly used.
I could write so much more about that vanished world.

Oh, I think it's a case of swings and roundabouts. Certainly, I think that education was better in those days and that generally people felt safer, and I suppose that people would say that morals were higher. However, there was a lot of intolerance around. For instance, divorced women were ostracised. The attitude was that you had made your bed and you should lie in it. Whilst there's much to be said for sticking at things, there are also situations where getting out is undoubtedly the right thing for all concerned.

Ah, Fry's Chocolate, Five Boys, Caramac, Flying Saucers, liquorice root and Jubblies!

Don't forget shrimps and sherbet dips!

I think my brother was only 8 when he bought his first 'rover' ticket for the buses. He would take a packed lunch and be away for the whole day using the many rural buses to visit places which interested him. It was just so 'safe' to do that back then... I'd tend to be off on my bike into the countryside and never felt under any pressure from my mother apart from to 'watch the traffic when crossing a busy road'.

shazz

I bought three sherbet dips the other day, Shazz! Although these days, the liquorice stick doesn't have a hole in the middle. My one claim to fame is that as a child, I once sucked the whole lot of sherbet through the liquorice straw. Only the once though; I couldn't repeat it, much that I tried. Gosh, I haven't thought of shrimps in years. There were blackjacks, ruby red lips, rainbow sherbet. Yum.